Discovering sentimental value at the 2025 Jerusalem Film Festival

With real life unfolding at a pace more intense, more crushing, and more surreal than any film, it’s hard — impossible, really — to pretend everything is normal. Films end. The lights come up. There’s a structure, a promise of resolution, maybe even a hero. In real life, the line between good and evil blurs; choices feel like a brutal dance between the worst of the worst, or a fleeting glimpse of something almost good.

My professor warns us about false endings — audiences hate them. Yet here we are, living inside one, waiting for a resolution that keeps slipping further away.

Jerusalem Film Festival 2025: July 17-26

And that brings us to the Jerusalem Film Festival. For the second year in a row, it unfolds under the heavy shadow of war. It feels like an act of stubborn defiance. A refusal to go silent, to stop creating, to stop feeling. The festival gathers us together, distracts us, and haunts us, reminding us of the loneliness, the stillness of pain, and the wild, beating heart that lives inside art.

Through these films, the zeitgeist of our time is refracted: our angst, our longing, those fragile flickers of beauty and possibility. We’re invited to pause our relentless inner monologues and, for a moment, lose ourselves in someone else’s joy, heartbreak, or small, brave acts of determination.

Opening film: Sentimental Value

Directed by Joachim Trier chronicling a family reunion that slices into the messy, tender truths of love and art. Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, Gustav — a once-renowned director now offering Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When she declines, she discovers he has given her part to a hungry young Hollywood star. I’ll be there, hoping it hurts just enough.

Young Mother’s Home

The latest film by the Dardenne brothers, winner of the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes.

Sound of Falling

Directed by Mascha Schilinski, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes. A remote German farm harbors generations of secrets. Four women, separated by decades but united by trauma, uncover the truth behind its weathered walls. Told across four timelines in the same rural family home, this unsettling meditation on national guilt and yearning promises to shake us from complacency.

Yes!

Director Nadav Lapid’s fever dream of art, survival, and betrayal in post-October 7 Israel. Y., a jazz musician, and his wife Jasmine, a dancer, sell their art, souls, and bodies to the elite, offering consolation to a bleeding nation. Then Y. is tasked with composing a new national anthem — a mission of impossible weight.

 My (Tentative) Schedule

Thursday

Opening ceremony with special guests Actress Gal Gadot and producer Lawrence Bender.

8:00 pm — Opening Film: Sentimental Value

Friday

10:00 am — Sound of Falling

1:00 pm — Urchin 

The debut feature by British actor Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, Babygirl), winner of Best Actor at Cannes Un Certain Regard.

Sunday

10:30 am — Shorts 1:

Palm Tree in Gaza: In the midst of war, two sisters — one in Rahat, the other in Gaza — try to stay connected through phone calls, childhood memories, and longing. From the ruins, only one palm tree remains — silent and tall. A tree that becomes a symbol of memory, sisterhood, and the will to live amidst devastation.

Half a Date: An impossible encounter between a Haredi yeshiva student and a secular soldier begins with stereotypical hostility, but unfolds in a surprising and emotional way

12:45 pm — Shorts 2:

Maintenance: Maintenance is a short documentary about a woman who built a different kind of shelter: a woman who built a garage to cope with the male world outside

Dalia’s Tea Casts a Shadow on Mount Fuji : Dalia, a widowed retiree, receives an electric peeler in the mail, inspiring her to make a vegetable casserole. For the first time in years, she is lead to rediscover the vitality and passion in her life.

Not My Weekend: Sharon, a divorced woman in her 40s, gets an exciting invitation to a rave. It’s her free night, but her ex stands her up. Now, if she wants to make it to the party, Sharon has to find someone to watch their child.

2:00 pm — Freedom of Expression and Creativity in Israel Today

This panel will explore the shifting boundaries of freedom of expression in Israel. Led by The Israeli Directors’ Guild.

2:30 pm — October 8

The emergence of antisemitism on college campuses, in social media, and on the streets since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel.

3:00 pm — Shorts 3:

Yes or No: Mali and Guy are waiting at the hospital to receive an injection that will stop Mali’s pregnancy. Until the very last moment, they cannot decide about this act that will change their lives forever.

4:30 pm – Meet Director Wendy Sachs, October 8

5:00 pm — Yes!

8:00 pm — Yes, Really — Q&A with Ari Folman & Lapid

Monday

11:30 am — January 2

Klára moves out the home she shares with her husband with the assistance of her friend, Ági. Seven car trips convey the challenges a wife faces during the separation period despite a repetitive route

12:30 pm — Looking for Yadida

The Yemenite, Mizrahi, and Balkan Children Affair is one of the most traumatic chapters in Israel’s history. In a desperate search for her missing aunt, the director uncovers chilling testimonies from medical and welfare staff, exposing a silenced national trauma — one that still cries out for justice.

2:15 pm — Diciannove

The debut film by Giovanni Tortorici, from the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section, produced by Luca Guadagnino Leonardo leaves his hometown for London and begins his business studies. Restless, he impulsively enrolls at the University of Siena to study literature. There, he embarks upon a journey of self-discovery, learning that the path, no matter how unfamiliar or daunting, is worthwhile.

4:00 pm — Dreams

The new film by Michel Franco starring Jessica Chastain, screened in the Official Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Romance blossoms between a wealthy socialite and a Mexican ballet dancer, entwining their contrasting lives and cultures.

6:15 pm — Experimental Cinema & Video Art Competition

7:15 pm — The Baltimorons

A new comedy by Jay Duplass, winner of the Narrative Spotlight Award at SXSW. A newly sober man’s Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.

9:30 pm — Oxygen

Anat eagerly awaits her son Ido’s release from the army and their planned trip abroad. When his release is canceled and he’s being sent for the new war, she sets out on a journey to bring him home.

9:30 pm — Balada Triste de Trompeta

Celebrating 15 years of Álex de la Iglesias’s macabre satire, winner of Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. A young trapeze artist must decide between her lust for Sergio, the Happy Clown, or her affection for Javier, the Sad Clown, both of whom are deeply disturbed.

Tuesday

10:00 am — The Dreamer

Known for his comic Bourekas roles, Yosef Shiloah was a profound artist and activist. He met with Arafat, was forced into exile, and through his writings and rare footage, his inner world is revealed.

1:00 pm — Islands

Tom is a washed-up tennis pro on a holiday island. He works as the tennis coach at a hotel resort, hitting countless balls over the net to tourists. When he crosses paths with a particular tourist family, it seems he’s found an escape of his own.

2:15 pm — The Little Sister

Winner of the Best Actress Award in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. When Fatima leaves her close-knit suburban family to study philosophy in Paris, she finds herself caught between her religious upbringing and the freedom of student life in the city.

5:45 pm — Tow

A drama based on a true story, produced by and starring Rose Byrne, with performances by Octavia Spencer (Oscar winner, The Help), Ariana DeBose (Oscar winner for West Side Story), Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), and Demi Lovato. From the Tribeca Film Festival lineup. The true story of Amanda Ogle, a homeless woman from Seattle who battled the predatory towing system to reclaim her life and car after receiving a tow bill for $21,634.

8:00 pm — The Pill

David Perlov’s 1972 film, newly restored by the Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. A visually beautiful burlesque fantasy about a fountain-of-youth pill and its effects on Getz, a down-and-out Tel Aviv night-club singer.

8:00 pm — Chain Reactions

Fifty years after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of global cinema and popular culture, Chain Reactions charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists—Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama—through early memories, sensory experiences, and childhood trauma.

8:15 pm — Mama

After years away from her family, Mila has become comfortable in the wealthy landscape of her employer in Israel. When an accident sends her back to her poor Polish village, Mila must rediscover her home.

Wednesday

10:00 am — Tow

11:00 am — Mama

12:00 pm — The Young Mothers’ Home

1:15 pm — Bella

An Israeli couple and a Palestinian couple, united by friendship but divided by borders, race to reach a dove beauty contest.

2:30 pm — Sound of Falling

3:30 pm — Diciannove

Leonardo leaves his hometown for London and begins his business studies. Restless, he impulsively enrolls at the University of Siena to study literature. There, he embarks upon a journey of self-discovery, learning that the path, no matter how unfamiliar or daunting, is worthwhile.

8:00 pm — On Thin Ice

The story of the Druze community in the Golan Heights is narrated by a girl with an Israeli dream, and her uncle, who clings to his Syrian identity. Long-term documentation reveals a tragic story of a community without an identity.

8:30 pm — Dead Language

A chance encounter leads Aya to pick up a stranger at the airport. When he disappears, he leaves a gnawing hunger behind—one which might only be fulfilled by a complete stranger.

Thursday

10:00 am — The Baltimorons

10:00 am — What Does That Nature Say to You

New film by South Korean master Hong Sang-soo, screened in the official programs of Locarno and Berlin. A young poet drops his girlfriend off at her parents’ house and is amazed by its size. He bumps into her father, meets her mother and sister, and they end up spending a long day together ̶ fueled by conversation, food, and libations

11:30 am — Videoheaven

A documentary from the Tribeca Festival, directed by Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, Pavements), narrated by Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), tracing the rise and fall of video rental stores through their depictions in film and television. Through a mix of diverse footage and narration by Maya Hawke, Alex Ross Perry examines the crucial role video stores played in shaping film culture.

12:15 pm — Dead Language

4:30 pm — The Party’s Over

When Philippe and Laure arrive at their summer home in southern France with their daughter and her new partner, they expect another peaceful vacation in the beautiful region. And at first, it seems that’s how things will go—until tensions quickly spiral out of control with their housekeepers, Tony and Nadine. A comedic drama presented at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

6:30 pm — In the Name of Blood

A pillar of the local Georgian community is murdered in the working-class neighborhoods of Nice. His son, Tristan, finds himself alone with his grieving mother. Gabriel, his older brother with a troubled past, reappears from a long exile to make amends by redeeming his family honor

8:45 pm — The Passenger

Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece starring Jack Nicholson, screened as part of the Jerusalem Cinematheque’s 50th anniversary celebration. Unable to find the war he has been asked to cover, a frustrated war correspondent takes the risky path of assuming the identity of a deceased arms-deal acquaintance.

Friday

10:30 am — My One and Only

A newly religious woman claims her husband has been replaced. He looks exactly the same—but she knows he is not the man she married. A mystery drama about falling in love and about staying in love.

1:00 pm — Ari

Forced from home after quitting his teaching position, Ari navigates life’s uncertainties. His reunion with childhood friends becomes a catalyst for personal transformation.

That’s the plan (for now).

What did I leave out? Which films are calling to you? And most importantly: when are we grabbing coffee after, to unpack it all — to debate which films stayed merely good, and which ones leapt into that rare, luminous space of transcendence, leaving us floating out into the Jerusalem night, forever altered?

I’ll save you a seat.

For more information, check out the Jerusalem Film Festival’s website.